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White Hat
10/18/2018Panel: Bridging the Funding Gap
Igor DaCruz is
a Senior Vice President for Silicon Valley Bank. He leads the Biotech and
Diagnostics practice for the Southwest geography, including AZ. His
specialties include provide financial solutions for high growth public and
private life science companies with a focus in venture debt. For 35
years, SVB has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold
ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise
through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial,
international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique
needs of innovators. Learn more at www.svb.com.
Rosemarie
Truman is Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), a
501c3 non-profit with a mission to identify breakthrough inventions and
maximize their commercial potential. With over 25 years of experience in
entrepreneurship, executive leadership, and philanthropy, Rosemarie’s
specialty is venture investment strategy, having led growth strategies for 50
of the global Fortune 100 companies in over 15 countries.
Russ
Yelton currently serves as Chair of the
AZ-HCIF Trustees; President of Yelton Associates; Board
Member at Pinnacle Transplant Technologies, Inc. where he previously
served at CEO; Member of the Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee; a
member of the Phoenix Forward Bioscience Leadership Council; and Past-Chair
at AZBio. A leader in Arizona’s Bioscience and Business
communities, Russ served as CEO of Pinnacle Transplant (2014-2017), is
a past Board Member of the National Business Incubation Association; and is
nationally recognized for his expertise in the business acceleration and
incubation sector.
Moderator: Dirk Beth,
Hyalescent Ventures
White Hat
10/18/2018Patient Driven Innovation and Investing
Tammy
Crawford is the Founder and Executive Director of Focus on Lyme and leads the
team in achieving its mission to improve diagnostics, treatment, prevention,
and advocacy for patients suffering from Lyme and associated tick-borne disease. Tammy was inspired to create Focus on Lyme by
her daughter Jessica’s journey and is motivated every day to try to ensure no
one has to experience what she did.
White Hat
10/18/2018Calimmune - A case study from the innovator and investor perspective
Calimmune, Inc. (acquired by CSL Limited in 2017) is the 2018 Arizona
Bioscience Company of the Year.
Louis Breton is the former CEO of Calimmune, Inc., a gene therapy
development company he co-founded with Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baltimore,
which was recently acquired by CSL Behring.
Calimmune focused on liberating patients from chronic and currently
incurable diseases. Mr. Breton is a
husband, father, Chaplain, inventor, author, mentor, serial entrepreneur and
is involved in local charities. He has
a career in biotechnology spanning more than 2 decades. He has now built and successfully sold 3
life science focused companies, including a biotech consulting firm. He has raised more than $100M for the
companies he has launched, and has conducted approximately 500 licensing
deals with academic and government institutions. He has established international
subsidiaries, negotiated with global regulatory bodies, and has collaborated
with ministries of health of multiple governments. He has been intimately involved in more
than 20 different product launches. He
has been a board member of 12 biotech and high tech companies, and was a
Business Advisory Council member for a sitting president. Mr. Breton has presented to the House of
Lords, and participated in a special conference at the Vatican to bridge
faith and science. In the last decade,
he has helped to craft a new paradigm for the delivery of stem cell gene
therapy and regenerative medicine, and is now taking on the esteemed roles of
chauffer, Dance Dad, swim instructor, baby sitter and courier.
Harry George, President and CFO, Radiance Therapeutics, Inc.
For over four decades, Harry George has been starting, funding, and
operating rapid-growth technology companies.
In 1995, Harry co-founded Solstice Capital, an early-stage venture
capital firm with offices in Boston and Tucson, which raised $80M in two
funds. Solstice was active until 2015
and invested in 44 companies that generated positive returns for both
funds. In 1981, prior to Solstice,
Harry was the co-founder, a director and the CFO of Interleaf, Inc., a
pioneer in electronic publishing.
Interleaf was the seventh-fastest growing private company in the US
for a five-year period and went public in 1986 with 800 employees. In January
of 2000, Interleaf was acquired by BroadVision for $900M. Before Interleaf,
in 1973, Harry was a co-founder, a director and the CFO of Kurzweil Computer
Products, the leader in optical character recognition and early use of
AI. Mr. George has served on 26
boards for both public and private companies.
He is currently serving on the boards of HTGMolecular, Medipacs,
PostBidShip, RxActuator, Medipacs, Radiance and Splash Pharmaceuticals. Mr.
George has been active in a number of community organizations and has served
as Treasurer of both the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Tucson Museum
of Art. He is currently a board member of the Southern Arizona Leadership
Council and, earlier, helped start Tucson’s Desert Angels and Start-up
Tucson. Mr. George graduated from
Bowdoin College and was given an Honorary Doctor of Science from the U of A
in 2012.
Moderator: John M. (Jock)
Holliman, III, Valley Ventures;
Executive Chairman at LipimetiX Development and Capstone
Therapeutics. Since February 1993,
Jock has been a general partner of entities, which are the general partners
of Valley Ventures, LP (formerly known as Arizona Growth Partners, LP),
Valley Ventures II, LP, Valley Ventures III Annex, LP, all of which are
venture capital funds that invest principally in life science companies. He also serves in an executive capacity at
Capstone Therapeutics, Inc. He became Executive Chairman and Principal
Executive Officer of Capstone on April 5, 2006 and has served as a director
of the company since September 1987 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors
since August 1997.
